A few days ago my wife took me on a trip to Madrid for a concert of my favorite classical music composer - Ludovico Einaudi. What a show it was! And how can a piano composer fill out an entire arena with 10-12 thousand viewers and entertain them for almost 3 hours so that they don’t want to leave and can’t get enough? Here’s how:
- The Spanish Christmas Lottery Ad in 2015
- How I discovered Ludovico and his brilliant music?
- A piano player is a rock star?
- Ludovico Einaudi in Apple Park!
The Spanish Christmas Lottery Ad in 2015
In Spain the Christmas Lottery is a big deal and it’s something almost the entire nation participates in. That’s why each year an ad for this event is very important and one of the best ones was the 3-minute short featuring a night watchman called Justino.
The music accompanying this film is “Nuvole Bianche” by Ludovico Einaudi, originally released in 2004. The emotional piano piece became hugely popular in Spain because of that advert and even entered the Spanish singles chart.
How I discovered Ludovico and his brilliant music?
Just for you to know about me - I have no musical talent. I play no instrument. I don’t particularly appreciate classical music. Well, that changed about 10 years ago when I was accompanying one of my daughters to a ballet class and while leaving each time I heard this beautiful music that the ballet teacher was using for warm up. One day I couldn’t resist and asked the lady what the music was, and she explained it was “In Un’altra Vita” by Ludovico Einaudi.
To this day this is my favorite song by Ludovico. It’s a shame he didn’t play it on the concert, so I didn’t get to listen to it live… but now I like most of his songs.
Actually, whenever I’m doing a Weekly Review on a Friday, I put on my headphones and play “The Royal Albert Hall Concert” of Ludovico…
A piano player is a rock star?
Ludovico is a 70-year-old piano composer. Not your typical rock star. His music has no lyrics. But it speaks to you. His compositions with other instruments are magical and they transport you to a place beyond anything else.
After the concert we were joking with my wife:
how is it that he’s not a 20-something year old blonde that’s half naked, but an old guy with a hat that doesn’t sing… yet his music fills out an entire stadium…
Ludovico Einaudi in Apple Park!
After my last critical comment about Apple and WWDC conference it’s fitting that I post something positive about them… as they invited Ludovico 7 years ago for a private concert as the first artist ever to perform in Steve Jobs Theatre.
Here’s his entire 1-hour concert - enjoy: